A crazy week of rotation as we start the slog through December. It gives you an indication of what it will be like once the festive fixtures kick in and highlights the need for a strong bench to cover those rests and knocks. Liverpool virtually fielded a second XI, electing to drop Salah and Firmino to the bench, while leaving Mane and Robertson at home. The most notable restee (?) was perhaps Raheem Sterling who wasn’t needed from the bench in City’s latest victory. Can we assume that those who didn’t play or had reduced minutes this midweek will be in the starting line up at the weekend? That’s the game. There were no clean sheets this week either, so any five man defences were in for a rough couple of nights.

The Kane to Aguero switch proved popular ahead of this gameweek, aided a little by the Aguero injury. I wonder how many would have taken the plunge if Aguero hadn’t been out. Spurs run of fixtures into the new year look like a potential goalfest for Kane and Aguero is much less rotation proof that the Spurs man with Gabriel Jesus waiting in the wings. Other than a potential rest around Tottenham’s important European game next week I think it’s safe to assume Kane will start every game through Christmas, probably earning his eventual break for the FA Cup 3rd Round against Shepshed Dynamo. Edgbaston made that move and captained Kane to good effect. Other goals from Wilson, Fraser, Pike, Mainwearing and Richarlison totted up an impressive 80+ total to move them from 6th all the way up to 5th.

Player of the week – Riyad Mahrez – Manchester City – 12 points

The City guessing game is never an easy one, but is made slightly less complicated by the long term absences of Kevin De Bruyne and Benjamin Mendy. There seems to be some kind of rough three way rotation working around the central striker, whether that be Aguero or Jesus, and also around the central midfielder, who is the ever present Fernandinho. Dilva, Bilva and Gundogan rotate around the midfield positions, with Gundogan being perhaps the slightly less favoured, while Sterling, Mahrez and Sane do the same either side of the attacker. Mahrez, like Gundogan, is getting slightly less minutes than the others, but it’s still enough to allow him to score his fourth double figure haul of the season. Will he play the next game? Who knows. It’s Chelsea, so Pep may choose his strongest XI, in which case Sane and Sterling may be the preferred two. Having said that, Sane has started and finished each of he last three games, so maybe Mahrez picks up another start and don’t bet against him adding to his double figure scores.

Bargain of the week – Lucas Perez – West Ham United – 12 points

Further proof the West Ham fixture swing is worth a look, although hats off to anyone who took a punt on Lucas Perez being the beneficiary. It took him 50 minutes to register his brace having come on for the injured Arnautovic. It looks likely the Austrian striker will be out until the New Year, so expect more minutes for Perez, although still perhaps playing second fiddle to Javier Hernandez.

Twat of the week – Marcos Rojo – Manchester United – -2 points

An unfortunate own goal put pay to any chance of Rojo keeping a minus score, despite what should probably be considered in terms of Man U at the moment, as a good performance against an in form Arsenal. United can’t seem to get a settled back line. Their combined ownership is probably at an all time FPL low.

Greenyteamy’s rise continues. They jumped on Eden Hazard’s return to the Chelsea line up back in gameweek 7. In the seven weeks since gameweek 9 he’s contributed in five – three of them have been double figure scores. This week he picked up 15 points and Greenyteamy had him as captain. A few other Buckets managers followed suit and there has been an increase in the ownership of Chelsea assets, particularly Hazard and Morata. Hornets, at the top of our league, captained Morata. As did Fun Lovren Criminals and Gotta Light in third and fourth. This shift has probably been prompted by the run of winnable fixtures Chelsea have between now and the New Year, as well as the complete unreliability of Lukaku and Kane and the slowing down of the Man City express. It seems City are in a groove now of only being able to win games 2-1 with very late winners, which isn’t good for those with City defenders, or a triple of City attackers. Points are being dropped somewhere. It’s worth noting also that Greenyteamy have achieved this rise up the table having never had Kane in their team. So there you go – you don’t need him. But dare you get rid? There’s a double gameweek just been announced. Spurs play twice in gameweek 22. This might seem like a lifetime away but such is the fixture build up it’s actually only in four weeks. So if you do get rid, the likelihood is you’re only going to want to get him back.

Player of the week – Philippe Coutinho – 18 points

Throwing another midfield spanner in the works, Coutinho’s form looks like it could be on the rise again. It’s been an in and out season dogged by injury and constant rumours of his exit to Barcelona. He’s made four double figure scores all season in just eight gameweek appearances, scoring four, making five and picking up 10 bonus points. He’s almost guaranteed to score something if he plays. Liverpool are the new City. Their goal machine has cranked up a gear since the 4-1 hammering to Spurs seven gameweeks ago. They’ve netted 19 times in the last six. And as well as considering the Chelsea fixtures for the next few weeks it may well be worth looking at Liverpool assets, particularly their front four of Coutinho, Firmino, Mane and, of course, Mohamed Salah. Salah should be a mainstay by now anyway. In among the fixture pile up expect at least three of these four to play and watch the points roll in.

Bargain of the week – Jesse Lingard – 15 points

Lingard has two double figure contributions in the last two weeks but the problem is you’re never quite sure whether he’s going to nail down a permanent starting berth in that team. He seems to be in a constant rotation with the likes of Mata, Martial and Rashford, and could quite easily be dropped for the next match. Form dictates he shouldn’t be but it is the Manc derby, so maybe Mourinho will think more defensively for that game.

Twat of the week – Davinson Sanchez – -2 points

Spurs players are not popular at the moment. The defenders are not keeping clean sheets, or in Sanchez’s case, not keeping clean sheets and getting sent off for throwing vicious elbows into the opponent’s winger’s faces. They’re dropping like flies out of fantasy teams and dropping in value. Where has Dele Alli been this season? Playing well in Europe, that’s where.

It’s been an eventful week full of goals, particularly on Saturday, where eight of the twelve teams playing scored at least three times. Yet the average score was a very average sounding 46, and most of us hovered in and around that total come Sunday evening. Everyone in the world, no doubt, kept Alexis Sanchez as captain. A lone assist from the Arsenal striker got you 10 points, and not much more was offered from his elite player contemporaries. You had to go way out on a limb for big captain points this weekend. Either that, or be Yeboah’s Right Foot.

An amazing 99 points came courtesy of a team where all the stars aligned and every player but Etienne Capoue scored more than just their basic appearance points. Most notably, Wilfried Zaha, who apart from Sanchez, has the best stats in the game at the moment. Yeboah’s have persevered with Zaha from week one. It must have been tempting to boot out the Palace winger early doors, but in the last six weeks he’s scored 51 of his 72 points. It’s gone largely unnoticed by everyone that Palace have started scoring goals. In their latest goalfest Zaha picked up a season’s best 16 points. Yeboah’s finished with the 273rd best score in the world this weekend, flying to the top of Buckets and taking a clear lead in the race for December manager of the month.

Player of the week – Jamie Vardy – 17 points. A hat trick tearing Man City apart reminiscent of last season.

Bargain of the week – Wilfried Zaha – 16 points. Still on £5.5 million – expect that to rise.

Last weekend was a crazy weekend – a debacle/triumph depending on your captain choice. This weekend I guarantee most of us will be fielding Alexis Sanchez, no matter how many transfers it takes to get him in. Any managers mulling over the worth of Aguero still, may be secretly celebrating his moment of madness last week. A four game ban – his second lengthy ban of the season – rules him out until New Years Eve. And makes many manager’s minds up for them. Time to go, Sergio. (Till he scores five in his second game back and we all try to crowbar him in at the early expense of our winter wildcard.)

Being banned for six league games before Christmas is meant to happen to people like Diego Costa. This season, after Sanchez, he’s the most potent attacking threat in the game, and still hasn’t reached the five yellow card mark. He’s been stuck on four since gameweek 6 – the last game that Chelsea lost. And he was nowhere near the brawl at the end of last week’s defeat of City. I guarantee that if enough people bring him in to replace Aguero this week, he’ll pick up that long awaited fifth card. So don’t do it.

The other obvious replacement for Aguero is Harry Kane. He has five in four since coming back from injury. Spurs have two home games against Hull and Burnley after this weekend and they look like potential boot-fillers.

Also consider Kelechi Iheanacho, who should get the nod in Aguero’s absence. In the four games in which he’s played more than 45 minutes, he’s scored a total of 29 points. That’d be a healthy addition to anyone’s total from a £6.6 million striker. His value also opens up the door to Sanchez.

Or maybe…if you haven’t got three Chelsea players in your line-up, that’s what you should be aiming for. Chelsea’s next five games all offer clean sheet and goal bonanza potential. Three of them are at home against West Brom, Stoke and Bournemouth. Pedro, Nemanja Matic and Costa are all listed as doubtful. Leaving Eden Hazard, Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses as the only three of their attacking players that look certain to start. I imagine every effort will be put into getting Costa ready, with Cesc Fabregas and Willian on standby to fill in for the other two. As we approach the period in which all teams rotate, a rest for Pedro and Matic would hardly be a surprise.

Scotty2hotty win gameweek 15 with 81 points. It’s a total which sees them jump into the top five, although it could have been an even better week had they gone with Georginio Wijnaldum. Newcastle’s only player added 14 points to his total this week, and would have added 13 points to Scotty2hotty’s total had he been played instead of Harry Kane. That prospective 94 points could have seen S2H into 3rd.

Riyad Mahrez was the key to a big score this week. Pretty Schitty City look to be the only team that installed him as captain, earning them 42 points. Mahrez’s score takes him back to the top of the overall scoring charts ahead of Jamie Vardy. Vardy was the first past the 100 point barrier after last weekend’s historic goal. Mahrez has joined him on triple figures moving on to 119 points. Unfortunately for Vardy he could only muster an assist this week. DROP HIM!

Romelu Lukaku joined them on 100 points scoring for the 5th game in sucession. And scoring for the fourth successive game, and getting his first real mention of the season is Troy Deeney. Both Deeney and Odion Ighalo scored double figures this week. Behind Vardy and Mahrez, they’re the most lethal partnership in the league, and together they’ll cost you less than one Aguero. Deeney’s price is back on the rise again after his slow start saw it drop to £5 million. At his current rate of scoring he’ll probably catch up to his team mate in a few weeks. Get in quick.

Player of the week – Riyad Mahrez – 21 points. 24 goals now between him and Vardy.

Bargain of the week – Troy Deeney – 11 points. Five igoals and ten bonus points in six weeks.